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Friday, 3 November 2017

The ISIS-held area is rapidly shrinking in the city of Deir Ezzor. On November 1, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) Tiger Forces and the Republican Guard liberated Jubaliyah neighborhood, the central park area, the school of law and education area and the southern part of Hamidiyah neighborhood.

Thus, over the last few days, ISIS has lost over 40% of the area that it had been controlling in the northern part of the city.

On November 2, the Tiger Forces and the Republican Guard advanced deeper in Hamidiyah engaging ISIS in an intense fighting. If the ISIS defense there collapses, the terrorist group will have no chances to resist further attacks of government forces any notable amount of time.

As soon as Deir Ezzor is liberated, the SAA and its allies will focus on clearing the rest of the western bank of Euphrates from ISIS.

On November 1, six Tu-22M3 strategic bombers flew over the territory of Iran and Iraq and carried out a massive strike on ISIS positions near the ISIS-held border town of al-Bukamal. The strikes destroyed outposts, ammunition and weapons depots belonging to the terrorist group.

Meanwhile, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces seized the villages of al-Akidat and al-Bakaara east of Deir Ezzor city. 29 ISIS members were reportedly killed in the clashes there. Now, the SDF fully encircled the ISIS-held town of al-Busarityah and cut off the only road that could be used by the SAA to reach it. Soon, the SDF will start storming the town itself.

Late on November 1, Israeli warplanes bombed a copper factory in Hisyah Industrial Area 30km south of Homs city. Local sources added that the factory was hit with 7 unspecified munitions. In response, the 72 brigade of the Syrian Air Defense Forces launched an unspecified ground to air missile at the Israeli warplanes. The missile exploded east of al-Qusayr city near the Syrian-Lebanese border. No hits were reported.

The 72 brigade of the Syrian Air Defense Forces is mainly armed with the old-fashioned Soviet-made S-75 air defense system.

On October 31, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) Tiger Forces and the Republican Guard liberated the neighborhoods of Kanamat, Khassarat, Badr and Old Airport from ISIS in Deir Ezzor city. Government troops also advanced al-Hamidiyah, Sheikh Yassin and al-Ardhi.

Earlier, the SAA and its allies liberated liberation of worker 1, worker 2 and Afri neighborhoods. Thus, government forces retook about third of the area, which was controlled by ISIS in the northern part of the city.

On the same day, the Russian attack submarine ‘Veliky Novgorod’ launched 3 Kalibr cruise missiles on terrorist targets near the ISIS-held town of al-Bukamal. The missiles destroyed several fortified command points, where militants and vehicles were deployed, and a large weapons depot.

In Iraq, the army and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have liberated the subdistrict of Ubaydi from ISIS east of the ISIS-held border town of al-Qaim. Now, the army and the PMU will likely focus on further clearing this bank of the Euphrates from ISIS in order to set a foothold for an advance on al-Qaim itself.

Iraiq forces launched an advance on the ISIS-held town of al-Qaim last week. Since then, they had liberated a large area east and south of it and reached the outskirts of the town.

The liberation of al-Bukamal and al-Qaim may be considered as a strategic loss of the US-led coalition. Washington had been seeking for a long time to build a buffer zone controlled by its proxies between Syria and Iraq arguing that in other cases Iran would be able to provide military assistance to the Assad government via a land route.

Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraq Federal Government allegedly reached an agreement over the border crossings of Faysh Khabur and Ibrahim al-Khalil. According to the agreement, troops of both the Federal Government and the KRG will be stationed there. So, Baghdad will be able to monitor the traffic between the KRG and Turkey as well as between the KRG and a part of Syria controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This development will also have long-standing consequences for the US and its proxies in the region.